Freeze tolerant ball valve

ABSTRACT

A freeze tolerant ball valve for controlling the direction of expansion of freezing water within the ball valve is disclosed. The valve includes valve body inlet and the valve body outlet, and a spherical-shaped gate that has an axial fluid passage that extends through the spherical-shaped gate. The spherical-shaped gate can be rotated to block fluid communication between the valve body inlet and the valve body outlet. The valve body also has a first sidewall that is of a first sidewall thickness, and a sidewall having a boss that supports a concave cap that has a bottom wall that is of a bottom wall thickness, the bottom wall thickness being substantially thinner than the sidewall thickness. The cooperation of the passage through the spherical-shaped gate, the first sidewall with its first sidewall thickness positioned opposite to the bottom wall of the concave cap results in a valve that directs the effects of freezing on to the concave cap, which would fail first in the event of freezing. The cap can be easily and quickly replaced in the event of failure.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Non-provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 14/737,067, entitled: Freeze Tolerant Ball Valve,filed on Jun. 11, 2015 the entire disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference, U.S. Non-provisional patent application Ser.No. 13/968,296, entitled: Freeze Tolerant Ball Valve, filed on Aug. 15,2013 the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference,and U.S. Provisional Patent Application having Ser. No. 61/766,519,filed Feb. 19, 2013, entitled Freeze Tolerant Ball Valve, incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This application relates to a method and device for preventing damagefrom freezing water to a ball-type valve. More particularly, but not byway of limitation, the disclosed invention provides a removable concaveplug with a relatively thin-walled floor with scored areas and athick-walled section on the valve body at a location opposite to theremovable concave plug. The scored areas of the plug act create asacrificial surface that gives away under the pressure from waterexpansion due to freezing.

Discussion of Known Art

Ball valves have been widely used for controlling the flow of varioustypes of fluids under various conditions. Their use has been favored dueto the simplicity of the valve, which in its most basic form consist ofa ball with a passage that can be rotated. The rotation allows openingof the valve through the alignment of the passage with the valve inletand the valve outlet, and then closing the valve by rotating the passageto a position where the passage is no longer exposed to the valve inlet.The simplicity and reliability of ball valves has made them very popularas part of lawn sprinkler systems. However, the passage in the ball of aball valve makes the valve vulnerable to damage due to freezing of watertrapped in the passage during the winter months.

Efforts to alleviate the possibility of damage from freezing include thedevice disclosed in European Patent Application 2110589 to Cagnacci,which provides a receptacle that is positioned below the ball of theball valve. The receptacle collects moisture that may lead to damagefrom freezing of the valve. An important problem associated with theCagnacci device is that based on observations of ball valves damaged byfreezing, the damage due to freezing is consistently found on the sideof the ball valve body. See accompanying FIG. 10. It is thus concludedthat it is the freezing water that is trapped in the passage through thevalve that causes the damage to the ball valve. A possible solution tothis problem would be to simply provide a device with drainage ports,such as the valve shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,698 to Weinhold, whichuses a drainage to remove the water trapped in the valve body and thusobviate the problem of freezing.

A similar approach to Weinfold's approach is found in U.S. Pat. No.4,718,444 to Boelte, which discloses the use drainage ports that alignwith the passage of the ball when the ball is in the closed position. Aproblem with the provision of a drainage port or valve to drain liquidsfrom the ball passage when the valve is in the closed position is thatthe homeowner often forgets to open the drainage port before freezingoccurs, and thus the valve is damaged during the first freezing of thefall or unexpected freezing in the spring.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0258092 to Pettinaroli etal., which simply exposes the ball passage to a side opening on the ballvalve, and the side opening is then capped with a female plastic capthat is tethered to a male extension that protrudes from the side of thevalve body. A problem with the Pettinaroli et al. approach is that thedamage due to freezing is typically a product of neglect or unexpectedfreezing temperatures in the fall or in the spring. Accordingly the sideoutlet is likely to be plugged at the time of freezing, making the plugon a side outlet an ineffective solution.

Therefore, a review of known devices reveals that there remains a needfor a simple device that supports a concealed hook for hangingornaments.

SUMMARY

It has been discovered that the problems left unanswered by known artcan be solved by providing a freeze tolerant ball valve that includes: Avalve body that includes a ball housing that is positioned between avalve body inlet and a valve body outlet, the ball housing beingconfigured to accept a spherical-shaped gate that includes an axialfluid passage that extends through the center of the spherical-shapedgate, the valve body further having a lower wall and an upper wall, theupper wall having a gate-connection aperture, the gate-connectionaperture retaining a shaft that serves to rotate the spherical-shapedgate about its center from a first position where the valve body inletand the fluid passage align with one another to provide fluidcommunication between the valve body inlet and the valve body outlet, toa second position, where the valve body inlet and the fluid passage areat a normal relationship relative to one another, with the sphericalshaped gate blocking fluid communication between the valve body inletand the valve body outlet; the valve body having a pair of sidewallsthat oppose one another and extend between the upper wall and lowerwall, the first sidewall being a of a sidewall thickness and theopposing sidewall having a boss with an aperture that extends throughthe boss and through the sidewall, the threaded aperture cylindrical;and a concave cap that has a cylindrical outer surface and an internalsurface with ridges or discontinuities that are adapted for engaging amating surface on a wrench, such as a hex key wrench, the concave caphaving bottom wall that is of a bottom wall thickness, the bottom wallthickness being thinner than the sidewall thickness.

According to a highly preferred example of the invention, the sidewallthickness is at least twice that of the bottom wall thickness.Additionally, it is contemplated that the bottom wall will includescored or weakened areas that will further reduce the strength of thebottom wall. It has been discovered that the disclosed ball valvedirects the expansion of the freezing water that may be found in thespherical gate towards the sacrificial end cap and causes the bottomwall of the concave cap to rupture, saving the rest of the valve fromdamage from the freezing water. The sacrificial end cap can be readilyremoved and replaced without having to replace entire ball valve.

The freeze plug, or concave cap, material comprises of various materialsranging from a rigid nonferrous material like brass, to a flexiblematerial that is captured. Suitable flexible materials can be compoundssuch as rubber, nylon, polyethylene, neoprene, leather, silicone orsimilar material. With known devices any crack in a ball valve meantthat the entire ball valve unit had to be cut out and replaced. The bodyof the disclosed valve may be made using any suitable material, such asbrass, bronze, or steel.

It should also be understood that while the above and other advantagesand results of the present invention will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art from the following detailed description andaccompanying drawings, showing the contemplated novel construction,combinations and elements as herein described, and more particularlydefined by the appended claims, it should be clearly understood thatchanges in the precise embodiments of the herein disclosed invention aremeant to be included within the scope of the claims, except insofar asthey may be precluded by the prior art.

DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of thepresent invention according to the best mode presently devised formaking and using the instant invention, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a ball valve that incorporates thedisclosed invention.

FIG. 2 is an end view of a ball valve body that incorporates a boss witha concave cap, as disclosed here, shown in dashed lines.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a ball valve that uses the ball valve bodyillustrated in FIG. 2, and also shows concave cap with a scored orweakened area in the shape of a ring.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the valve body taken from FIG. 2, inthe direction of the arrows marked with the number 4, and illustratesthe spherical gate with the fluid passage in the spherical gate beingdirected towards concave cap, which is the position of spherical gatewhen the ball valve is in the closed position.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the valve body taken from FIG. 2, inthe direction of the arrows marked with the number 5, and illustratesthe orientation of the fluid passage of the spherical gate such that itdirects the expansion of freezing water towards the concave cap. Theview also illustrates that the thickness of the first sidewall in thepreferred example is approximately twice the predominant thickness ofthe bottom wall of the concave cap.

FIG. 6 illustrates the expansion of ice towards the concave cap,rupturing the bottom wall of the concave cap, and alleviating pressurefrom the rest of the components of the valve.

FIG. 7 illustrates the removal of the ruptured concave cap andreplacement of the concave cap with an undamaged concave cap.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of the scoring of inner face the bottomwall of the concave cap in order to weaken the bottom wall. FIG. 5illustrates that this scoring may be on the outer face of the bottomwall.

FIG. 9 is another example of the scoring of the bottom wall of theconcave cap, the view illustrating a circular scoring.

FIG. 10 is a photograph of various ball valves damaged by freezingwater, and illustrating that the damage consistently coincides with thelocation of the ends of the passage through the ball, orspherical-shaped gate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EXEMPLAR EMBODIMENTS

While the invention will be described and disclosed here in connectionwith certain preferred embodiments, the description is not intended tolimit the invention to the specific embodiments shown and describedhere, but rather the invention is intended to cover all alternativeembodiments and modifications that fall within the spirit and scope ofthe invention as defined by the claims included herein as well as anyequivalents of the disclosed and claimed invention.

Turning now to FIG. 1 where a freeze tolerant ball valve 10 made inaccordance with the principles disclosed herein has been illustrated.Water flows through the ball valve 10 along the axis 12. From FIG. 1 itcan be understood that the freeze tolerant ball valve 10 will include aconcave cap 56 that fits into a cap aperture 52 that has beenincorporated into a boss 50 that extends from the valve body 18. As willbe explained below, the structure of the disclosed freeze tolerant ballvalve 10 has been configured for controlling the direction of expansionof freezing water that may be found within the ball valve when the ballvalve is in the closed position. An example of a ball valve withfeatures found in many well-known styles of ball valves, is found inU.S. Pat. No. 4,218,042 to Eckel, issued Aug. 19, 1980, and incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

As illustrated in FIGS. 2-4, the ball valve 10 will include aspherical-shaped gate 16, which consists of a spherical body 18 and afluid passage 20 that extends through the spherical body 18. Thespherical-shaped gate 16 is connected to a shaft 22 that is in turnconnected to a handle or lever 24 that allows the user to turn thespherical body 18 from a first position where the fluid passage 20 isaligned with the valve body inlet 26, and thus aligning the fluidpassage 20 of the spherical-shaped gate 16 with both the valve bodyinlet 26 and the valve body outlet 28, creating fluid communicationbetween the valve body inlet 26 and the valve body outlet 28. Typically,the lever 24 lines up with the axis 20 when the fluid passage 20 islined up with the valve body inlet 26 and the valve body outlet 28,indicating that the ball valve 10 is in the fully opened position, asillustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3.

Turning the lever 24 to a second position, where the fluid passage 20 ofthe spherical-shaped gate 16, and the lever 24 are perpendicular to theaxis 12 closes fluid communication between the valve body inlet 26 andthe valve body outlet 28. Closing of the valve also traps any water thatmay have been in the fluid passage 20 of the spherical-shaped gate 16.The water remains trapped between the passage 20 and the sidewalls ofthe valve body.

Accordingly, referring to FIGS. 4-6, it will be understood that thepassage 20 of the ball valve 10 will extend across the valve body 18,normal to the axis 12, when the valve is in the closed position, andthus any trapped water 30 in the fluid passage 20 of thespherical-shaped gate 16 will remain trapped within the valve body 18.Thus, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, it will be understood that if thetrapped water 30 begins to freeze, the expansion of the freezing waterwill expand along the fluid passage 20 of the valve body 18. Also, FIGS.5 and 6 show that the spherical-shaped gate 16 provides a substantialamount of structural material 32 around the fluid passage 20, which willresist the expansion of the water, and urge the freezing water to expandfrom the ends 34 of the fluid passage 20, and against the sides 36 ofthe valve body 18. It is this expansion against the sides 36 of thevalve body 18 that has been observed as being the primary cause ofdamage to the ball valves used in sprinkler systems. The image ofnumerous failed valves shown on FIG. 10 supports the conclusion thatdamage to the body of the ball valve from freezing will predominantlyoccur from the pressure of water expanding along the fluid passage ofthe spherically-shaped gate found in ball valves.

FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 also show that the valve body 18 will have an upperwall 38 and a lower wall 40. The upper wall 40 includes agate-connection aperture 42, which provides a passage for the shaft 22that is used to turn the spherical-shaped gate 16 between the opened andclosed positions. The sidewalls of the valve body include a firstsidewall 44 that is of a first sidewall thickness T1. Opposite to thefirst sidewall is a cap supporting sidewall 48. The cap supportingsidewall includes a boss 50 that has a cap aperture 52 that extendsthrough the boss 50, and through the cap supporting sidewall 48. The capaperture 52 also includes internal threads 54, which are used tocooperate with a concave cap 56 that is used to plug the aperturethrough the boss 50.

FIG. 5 shows that the concave cap 56 will include a cylindrical outersurface 58 that has been configured for engaging the internal threads 54in the cap aperture 52. Also, it will be understood from FIGS. 5 and 7that the concave cap 56 has a concave portion 60 with an internalgenerally cylindrical surface 62 and a bottom wall 64. The bottom wallis of a bottom wall thickness T2, which is thinner than the thickness offirst sidewall thickness T1. According to a preferred example of theinvention, T1 is about twice the gage or thickness as T2. Since it ispreferred that the concave cap 56 and the valve body 18 will be of thesame material, preferably brass, it is contemplated that first sidewall44 will be approximately twice as strong as the bottom wall 64 of theconcave cap 56.

As can be understood from FIGS. 6 and 7, when the valve is closed, thepassage 20 of the spherical-shaped gate 16 will extend directly betweenthe first sidewall 44 and the concave cap 56. Thus, by making the bottomwall 64 of the concave cap 56 significantly weaker than the firstsidewall 44 of the valve body 18, the expansion of freezing watertrapped within the passage 20 and the first sidewall 44 and the concavecap 56 will lead to the rupture of the weaker bottom wall 64 of theconcave cap 56 before the failure of the first sidewall 44. Theweakening of the bottom wall 64 can be accomplished by simply making thebottom wall 64 thinner than the first sidewall 44 or by incorporatinggrooves 68, or scored areas, that further weaken the bottom wall 64.Clearly, a combination of a relatively thin bottom wall 64 and grooveswill further ensure the failure of the bottom wall 64 before the failureor damage of other components of the ball valve.

As can be understood from FIGS. 5 and 8-9, the grooves 68, or scoredareas, may incorporate angled sides 70 that converge towards one anotherand terminate along a line 70 in order to create a pronounced stressconcentration along the groove 68. Also, these figures show that thegrooves 68 may extend across the bottom wall in a radial manner or asconcentric circular shape, or any other suitable shape.

Referring now to FIGS. 5-7, it will be understood that the fluid passage20 of spherical-shaped gate 16 and the bottom wall 64 of the concave cap56 are generally normal to one another when spherical-shaped gate 16 isin the second position. FIG. 6 illustrates that this second positionaligns the body of the concave cap 56 with the fluid passage 20, so thatexpansion of water within the fluid passage 20 will react against thefirst sidewall 44 and the weaker bottom wall 64, as discussed above. Inthe event that the bottom wall 64 is ruptured due to freezing, asillustrated in FIG. 6, the plug can be quickly and easily replaced witha new one, as illustrated in FIG. 7.

Thus it can be appreciated that the above-described embodiments areillustrative of just a few of the numerous variations of arrangements ofthe disclosed elements used to carry out the disclosed invention.Moreover, while the invention has been particularly shown, described andillustrated in detail with reference to preferred embodiments andmodifications thereof, it should be understood that the foregoing andother modifications are exemplary only, and that equivalent changes inform and detail may be made without departing from the true spirit andscope of the invention as claimed, except as precluded by the prior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A ball valve that comprises: a ball housingpossessing an inlet port and outlet port; a spherical-shaped gatedisposed in said ball housing, a fluid passage extending through saidspherical-shaped gate providing an unobstructed pathway from said inletport to said outlet port when in an open position and obstructing saidpathway when in a closed position; and a cap adapted to seal an aperturein said ball housing, said cap adapted to crack before said ball housingwhen water trapped in said ball housing turns to ice; wherein said capis a unitary element.
 2. The ball valve of claim 1 wherein said cap isthreaded and is adapted to mate with mating threads in said aperture. 3.The ball valve of claim 1 wherein said cap is weaker than said ballhousing.
 4. The ball valve of claim 1 wherein said cap possesses atleast one scored section adapted to promote said crack.
 5. The ballvalve of claim 1 wherein said cap possesses wrench features adapted tomate with a wrench.
 6. The ball valve of claim 1 wherein said cap isconcave with a cylindrical outer surface and an internal surface withridges that are adapted to engage a mating surface of a wrench.
 7. Aball valve comprising: a ball housing possessing an inlet port, andoutlet port; a spherical-shaped gate disposed in said ball housing, afluid passageway extending through said spherical-shaped gate providingan unobstructed pathway between said inlet port and said outlet portwhen said spherical-shaped gate is in an open position and obstructingsaid pathway when said spherical-shaped gate is in a closed position;and a treaded cap adapted to seal a threaded aperture in said ballhousing, said treaded cap weaker than said ball housing and will crackinstead of said ball housing when water trapped in said ball housingturns to ice; wherein said cap is a unitary element.
 8. The ball valveof claim 7 wherein said threaded aperture extends through a boss thatsupports internal threads.
 9. The ball valve of claim 7 wherein saidthreaded cap possesses a crack initiation site with at least one score.10. The ball valve of claim 9 wherein said at least one score is on anessentially flat surface of said threaded cap.
 11. The ball valve ofclaim 7 wherein said threaded cap is concave with a cylindrical outersurface and an internal surface with ridges that are adapted forengaging a mating surface of a wrench.
 12. The ball valve of claim 7wherein said threaded cap possesses mating features adapted to engage awrench.
 13. A method comprising: providing a ball valve that possesses aball housing with an inlet port and outlet port; moving aspherical-shaped gate disposed in said ball housing from an openposition that permits water to flow from said inlet port to said outletport through a pathway in said spherical-shaped gate to a closedposition that obstructs water from flowing from said inlet port to saidoutlet port; trapping water in said ball valve when saidspherical-shaped gate is in said closed position; exposing said ballvalve to a freezing temperature when said water is trapped in said ballvalve; turning said trapped water into ice; and rupturing a plug thatseals an aperture in said ball housing instead of said ball housing whensaid trapped water turns into said ice; wherein said plug is a flatsurface with at least one scored section in said flat surface that isthe point of said rupturing when said trapped water turns into said ice.14. The method of claim 13 further comprising engaging said plug with awrench, said plug provides features that mate with said wrench.
 15. Themethod of claim 13 wherein said plug possesses plug threads that matewith aperture threads in said aperture.
 16. The method of claim 13further comprising providing a cylindrical-shaped boss extending fromsaid ball valve through which said aperture passes.
 17. The method ofclaim 13 wherein said trapped water will substantially drain throughsaid aperture when said plug is removed while said spherical-shaped gateis in said closed position.